Black Australorp

January 13, 2012 Posts 2 Comments

Black Australorp roosterWe’ve now played with seven
varieties of chickens, and Black Australorps are currently in first or
second place.



Egg-laying
abilities

As the name suggests,
Black Australorps were developed Down Under from
Orpington chickens at the turn of the twentieth
century.  In the 1920s, Australorps became famous for laying an
average
of 309.5 eggs per hen per year, a figure that compares favorably with
current modern hybrids.  One Australorp hen laid 364 eggs in
another year.  However, most Australorps clock in closer to
an average of 250 eggs per year.



So far, I haven’t been
as impressed by the egg-laying abilities of our Australorps as I’d
hoped.  Compared to our Golden Comets (a hybrid egg-laying breed),
Australorp eggs seem small and not as numerous.  Our pullets stopped
laying when stressed this winter, but, to be fair, I started
the pullets late in the spring and they weren’t in full lay.  Black Australorp pulletI’ll report more on how the
Australorps do in the egg department next year.



Behavior

In every other way, our
Australorps have been pros.  They’ve foraged better than any other
breed, coming in first among this year’s breeds in feed
to meat ratio. 
They’re on the shy side, which turns out to be a positive point since
it tempts them to hunt in the woods rather than in my garden.  And
the rooster is always on watch for predators but has yet to act
aggressively toward me.



Some sources suggest
that Australorps even make good mothers.  We added the Cuckoo Marans to our flock for that
purpose, but would be thrilled if an Australorp hen or two decided to
set this spring.


Our chicken waterer never spills on uneven
terrain or when faced with rowdy chickens.

Chicken winter quarters The greenhouse

January 9, 2012 Posts No Comments
Chickens in a greenhouse

I wrote a couple of
weeks ago about Harvey
Ussery’s tips for keeping your chickens healthy and happy in the winter.  I thought you might
like to see another, related method, this one by Throwback
at Trapper Creek. 
The blog’s author raises her chickens in an unheated greenhouse in the
winter, and all that brightness and warmth keeps her flock laying
straight through the cold season.



Chickens eating cabbageAlthough her flock isn’t able
to free range, I suspect her birds are just as happy as ours. 
Throwback at Trapper Creek’s chickens scratch through deep bedding
(which consists of the shavings from her dairy cow’s stall, along with
lots of straw), and she also provides plenty of garden debris like
cabbage leaves and carrot tops.  She lives in the Pacific
Northwest where you can eat greens, carrots, and more all winter if you
play your cards right, and she does.



If you have a hoop house
or greenhouse that sits vacant through the winter, perhaps you should
follow her lead?  Being warm and dry will make your flock so
happy, they probably won’t mind not getting to wade through winter mud
in their pastures.


Our chicken waterer never spills or fills with
POOP.

Diversifying your poultry flock

January 4, 2012 Posts 3 Comments

GeeseHarvey Ussery has experimented with just
about every kind of poultry imaginable.  If you’ve got a specific
gap in your homestead, maybe one of these species can fill it?



Bantams — Bantams are miniature
chickens.  Ussery suggests that bantams might be a better fit to
mix into gardens during the growing season since they don’t scratch as
much as standard-sized birds.



Guineas — Although guineas lay
eggs in the summer, most people raise them for meat.  Or for bug
control — these birds are supposed to be extremely efficient at
dealing with squash bugs, ticks, and grasshoppers.  In addition,
they like to eat snails, which can control the liver flukes so harmful
to goats on wet ground.



Muscovies — Like guineas, muscovies
will eat snails, and they also enjoy insects and slugs.  Ussery
considers these odd-looking ducks to be the most self-sufficient
waterfowl and raises them for meat.



Geese — Of all poultry, geese
are the most purely vegetarian.  That means you might be able to
mix them in with a flock of chickens to mow the grass, using the geese
as a source of meat and high quality cooking fat.  If you choose
small Chinese geese and train them as goslings, you might even be able
to get them to weed your garden — geese ignore garlic, strawberries,
potatoes, brambles, herbs,
tomatoes, onions, carrots, blueberries, and asparagus, but eat lettuce,
greens, and some other crops.  (For more on “weeder geese”, see
Harvey Ussery’s The
Small-Scale Poultry Flock — don’t assume you can just throw any
old goose in the garden and it won’t make a mess.)



Ducks — Depending on the variety
you choose, ducks can be raised for eggs (Campbells and Runners) or
meat (Aylesbury, Pekin, and Rouen.)  They don’t graze as well as
geese, but do eat slugs, insects, and worms.  In addition, both
ducks and geese can be very easy to feed since they will eat corn in
the husk and rye seeds, which chickens aren’t equipped to handle.



As intriguing as these
less well-known kinds of poultry are, each one has specific management
needs.  For example, waterfowl really should have access to enough
open water that they can duck their heads and paddle around a little
bit.  A good experiment might be to treat alternative poultry as
broilers — get a few in the spring and try them out, planning to eat
them in the fall.  If you love your new guineas or muscovies, you
can always make your flock self-sufficient next year.


Our chicken waterer is enjoyed by all kinds of
poultry — ducks, geese, guineas, and more.